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This update corrects the spelling of Georgetown Law School’s Jonathan Band.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.
Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.

Put simply, though Apple Inc. AAPL -2.13% has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark Owen has it on the book “No Easy Day,” you can still sell your copies to whomever you please whenever you want without retribution.
That’s being challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.

“It means that it’s harder for consumers to buy used products and harder for them to sell them,” said Jonathan Band, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association for Research Libraries. “This has huge consumer impact on all consumer groups.”

Another likely result is that it would hit you financially because the copyright holder would now want a piece of that sale.

It could be your personal electronic devices or the family jewels that have been passed down from your great-grandparents who immigrated from Spain. It could be a book that was written by an American writer but printed and bound overseas, or an Italian painter’s artwork.

There are implications for a variety of wide-ranging U.S. entities, including libraries, musicians, museums and even resale juggernauts eBay Inc. EBAY -1.54% and Craigslist. U.S. libraries, for example, carry some 200 million books from foreign publishers.

“It would be absurd to say anything manufactured abroad can’t be bought or sold here,” said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer and Schwartz Fellow at the New American Foundation who specializes in technology issues.

The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.
Read More>http://www.marketwatch.com/story/you...ril-2012-10-04

This could end up another Roberts court fiasco.

The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing.

If someone buys something, then they own it, it is THEIR private property. No, they don't own the copyright to it, nor the patent to it.

If they vote against reselling PRIVATE PROPERTY then the middle and lower class will basically become subjects, why? Because middle class and lower class families are the ones that have yard sales, they're the ones that buy used cars for their kids first car, they're the ones that are hardest hit by inflation.

our country is lost if they vote against the right to sell your private property

I try and I try, but I can never manage to find a set of Jarts at garage sales! My mom said it's illegal to sell them at all, even in garage sales.

You could buy some crossbow arrows, weight them and add larger feathers, they would work quite well. you can buy feathers and components online or at a sporting goods store, some hunters make their own arrows.

The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing.